Had a couple of nice days in Florida with 80+ degree temps for boating.

Kevin Brady at Dell Marine had the boat all ready when we arrived and he assured me that I was going to be happy.

We dropped her in the water and I was 100 feet away still in the truck when he fired the engines and WOW, did she sound sweet. We rocked downtown Jacksonville!

The new cams have really woke up the 500's. For an update we freshened up the stock 500 EFI's last year and went with Merlin World II rect port heads, we replaced the valve train new but when back with everything Merc uses stock and bumped the compression up to 9.25:1 and added dry exhaust.

Tyler Crocket reprogrammed the ECM's last year and we bumped the rev limiters up to 5550 RPM at that time.

I was runing Merc labbed 28 pitch bravo 1 4-blades and we were spinning them at 5100 to 5200 RPM.

We pulled the engines and changed the cams to the Crane 741 like used in the 525's.

While the engines were out we also removed the hook in the hull, trued the last four feet of the hull and removed the A/C intake on the bottom.

Starting out with the same props as before we immediately noticed a performance increase, mid range was awesome and the engines were screaming. We hit the rev limiters with 77 MPH showing on the GPS. This was at 82 degress outside with four people, 1/2 tank of fuel and pretty flat water on the St. Johns River.

Because the Arlington Marina ramp was closed for repairs we had to launch downtown and the water was VERY shallow. Almost did not get the boat off the trailer and had to power load, so we elected not to try the Hydromotive 5 blades we had with us at that time.

I'm looking forward to spinning some 30 pitch props and seeing what happens.

So not too bad. I spent under $2K on the hull and the engine work was also just under $2K and got a 5 MPH increase in speed instantly and I think there is more with the right props.

As for the hull work, it feels like the bow was running a little higher and it handled great. There was not any negative side effects from the work that was done.

Dock,

Thats not just "good news" that is great news. Maybe one of these days I will follow your foot steps and do some of the same things with ours. Can you post a pic or 2 of what you did with the AC pick up. Have the same as you had and if it is causing a problem seems like maybe a simple solution.

Any good to hear great news!

Mark

Nice!! Glad to hear that dock. Did the cam wake it up quite a bit? I wish I had gone with the 741, but still scarred of reversion and not wanting to pony up for the new exhaust.

77 is awesome! hope theres some more in there for ya.

Mark,

One picture shows the stock brass clam shell fitting that came stock from Baja. Then there is a picture taken yestrday that shows the hull now with out the fitting. Then the next picture shows the brass fitting we put in the transom for the A/C.

Dock

Thanks buddy. Yes the cam did REALLY wake the engines up. It is a very noticable difference.

I would guess that the hull work was 1-2 MPH and the Cam was 3-4 MPH.

dock, where did you get the new fitting? Im on the hunt for one.

I do not know.

Kevin Brady at Dell Marine in Jacksonville did all of that and you would have to contact him.

Give him a call or ask for Sarah in parts and tell them you want a brass fitting like them put in "Docks" boat. I'm sure they will be more then glad to help you out.

Phone # 904-730-9968

Thanks Dock, They are shipping me one out.

Dock,

How did they "finish" the straightened
area ?

Is it smooth ( as the original gel) ?

Or, did they leave a rough ( sanded) texture
to it ?

I think with 30's, you'll be tickling 80

jt

That is good news.

I'm glad you got it back, sounds like everything turned out the way you wanted.

I'll be glad to get mine back from Kevin. I still have a few things to do before spring.